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Wednesday, October 30, 1974
University Daily Kansan
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
"THAT'S ALL, FOLKS."
The networks' pusillanimous
The Tuesday night fiasco was a mistake all around. Producers and editors of television news made it known that Ford had nothing essentially new or different to say about his economic program. Their editorial judgment was the speech that justifies a half bill of life coverage. In the event itself, that judgment was abundantly confirmed. But when the White House demanded live news coverage for the suffice—the networks caved in and gave him the time.
Gobbledegook writing obfuscates
innocuous speech. Two days later, he wisely appeared before the House Judiciary Committee to ask that his pardon of former President Richard M. Nixon. In the first instance, he used his presidential power clumily. In the second, he downplayed his power adultery.
President Gerald R. Ford made two decisions this month that prompt reflection upon the position of the presidency in our public life. One was foolish, and one was wise.
That command is directed at anyone who values clear thinking. It is a rallying cry for scientists, policemen, engineers, athletes, and every harried executive who writes memos.
And the sad thing is that the barbarians who
tumble on clear thinking are among the most
educated in the world.
"Reinforce the bastions, we are losing the carlans creep ever closer and soon will entitle us."
Scarcely a day passes in which some abomination of the English language doesn't wet its lips and spray spittle on our attempts to reason clearly and keep track of what's haploglyphic in writing—and the stress is on unnecessary—daily boggles our minds and wastes our time.
A quarter-page notice in yesterday's Kansan announced in large type, "PANHELLENIC MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM." Those words municipalize parentheses in parenthesis and smaller type below. "PANHELLENIC MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM" was "Sorority Rush."
On the night of Oct. 15, he foolishly demanded and got prime TV time for a dull and
Ford both adroit and clumsy
This isn't meant to single out the sororites. Their notice was merely the most handy example of the kind of inexact expression that befuddles people everywhere English is written.
It's lucky for the sororites that someone thought to add those two words—sorority rush. Otherwise no one would have understood what the sororites were announcing. But that's all right. Just throw words around indiscriminately. Who cares if no one understands what is said?
By James Kilpatrick
From newspapers we get "Solen eyes kudos" and "Nicks nix draft picks." From government we get everything from the obscene "protective reaction strikes," meaning bombing, to the ludicrous "illumination is required to be extinguished," meaning turn out the lights
Educators have done away with high school
surrender was as regrattable as Ford's magisterial command. Television likes to pretend it has the same First Amendment rights of "first press" that newspaper.com uses in vain. It费了Vald demanded that the Washington Star-News publish the text of his
A teacher at Marymount College told a reporter last summer that the college had given him a virtual student receptor modules." She meant the college was putting a TV set on each desk.
students. Instead there are students at the secondary level. You don't take college courses. You participate in viable learning experiences at the college level.
A group of Bell System engineers in Kansas City, Mo., reports that increasing numbers of young engineers can't write reports succinctly. The head of the telephone company's long-range network says that many workers waste an unacceptable amount of time in trying to communicate with one another.
committee's questions. It was a heartwarming experience to see a president elevate his sights a little lower, and though it wasn't him, it was an iclimactic. It was wonderful welcome.
Gobbledgeook writing is becoming the rule rather than the exception. It is perhaps too much to expect everyone to learn the difference between "which" and "that." (If you go to the third house on the left, which has green drapes, you pass two houses. If you go to the third house on the left that has green drapes, you might pass a hundred houses before you find the third one in green drapes.) But we all can strive to write simple, politely and concrete, "we can abandon "prior to" and "concrete." We can forget "utilize" when a simple "use" will do. We can forget "formulate" (make), "finalize" (finish or complete) and "level" (omit it altogether).
Even in technical fields barbarians are running wild, mucking up the language and leaving a trail of memos that cause their peers to scratch their heads in perplexity.
Two days later, back ... Washington, the picture of presidential power was wholly controlled by a committee no accounting whatever for his pardon of Nixon. The power to pardon is vested exclusively in the chief executive. He doesn't have to be president in order to consent. If a president grossly abuses his power to pardon (assuming the absence of bribery), he may be answerable, but he surely is not answerable to a House committee.
But most of all we can keep our education in perspective. No one is impressed if you can't understand what you're saying. Convince people of your erudition by dazzling them with simplicity.
editorial judgment should be theirs alone.
Presidential power is an edged tool. Like an axe or a scalpel or a bowie knife, it has to be used with utmost care. Ford is learning, he is feeling his way, and like most appa-
torists in the past, he will pick himself now and then. He misused his power as to the pardon and again in the matter of the Kansas state speech, but these were errors of judgment.
The President is as fallible as all the rest of us. He demolishes that as a president, he is uncommonly wise as well.
(© 1974 Washington State Syndicate. Inc.)
To his great credit, Ford cast aside the imperial toga of his predecessor. He waived any claim to " executive privilege." Calmly and courteously, he submitted voluntarily to the
Jack McNeely
'Apocrypha' is a dose of sanity
Jack McNeely Contributing Writer
should have said to Ron Nessen, Ford's press secretary.
By STEVEN LEWIS
BY STEVEN LEWIS Contributing Writer
The power of a president to command TV time is a power that ought not to exist. It ought to be abandoned. No president should be able instantly to dominate the television channels at his sole discretion, and thus to impose his views upon the nation as a whole. The other side of this proposition, of Walter Crankle and Howard K. Smith should not have the power arbitrarily to deny a president access to the nation as a whole, but that is one of the things that freedom of the press can afford. A president truly has something newsworthy to say, in Kansas City or anywhere else, reporters will cover it. But the
THE NEW APOCRYPHA. By
John Sladek, Stein & Day, 375
pages, 1974, $8.95.
In the good old days, books that promoted strange sciences and occult beliefs were the best. Now they're remote corners of bookstores.
Today pseudo science is big business. It seems people have difficulty separating science fact from science fiction.
"The New Apocrypha" by
In one Lawrence bookstore, for example, I recently found wishful thinker Arthur Koester mixed in with scientist Isaac Asimov. Also, L. Sprague De Camp, a competent writer on ancient mysteries, was mixed in with Erich von Daniken.
KANSAN review
Addressing himself to recent experiments in precision by Helmut Schmidt at Duke University, he conducted one experiment (63,166 cases) the number of hits was about 652 greater than expected by chance. The odds against this high are 200 million to one.
John Sladek is a book that attempts to bring sanity to this mixed up world of science and pseudo science. Sladek analyzes beliefs in Atlantis, UFOS, or Descarton, to diction, but a few and in most cases Sladek ends up skeptical, if not amused.
My point is that the highly improbable is not necessarily convincing evidence that chance is being manipulated. If you do not believe that the highly improbable consistently manifests itself in controlled experiments, one could reasonably conclude that the likelihood is a sixth sense. But as yet, the evidence isn't overwhelming.
"In a second experiment. . .
speech, the editors of the Star-News would have told him, delicately to be sure he go to the school, that is what NBC, CBS and ABC
Sladek's analyses are generally devastating. The authors provide evidence for extrasensory perception (ESP bupf like to use "parapasychology"). Sladek uses them into a swat of statistics.
Ironically, Sladek debunks numerology later in his book, but here he falls over himself by the so-called laws of chance.
What do you think are the odds against your being where you work? How would you review? You could be an infinite number of other places doing an infinite number of things. Yet you can see here. But what does it prove?
At a Monte Carlo roulette wheel, red once came up 32 times in the odds against it. The odds against a billion to one. In other words, the Monte Carlo incident was far more improbable than were results of the precognition experiments. Yet both happened.
Repeatedly throughout his book, Slak exposes poorly run experiments. The deceptiveness of biased experiments is compounded by the fact that experimenters don't publicize numerous failures. In other words, more experiments are needed.
On the whole, "The New Aporphyra" is a superb dose of sanity. If you read it, the odds are 93.42 billion to one that you'll see 99 per cent fewer spooks.
the score was even better, the odds against it being about 10,000 million to one. This, I think, is very encouraging indication of precondition."
Athleticire
Readers respond/ Senate,Kansan juvenile Nixons
To the Editor:
In regard to the article that appeared in Oct. 24 issue of the Kansan, "Watson tackled" by Steven Lewis, I have one but two points. He over-all disgust. The student-athlete at the University of Kansas is constantly subjected to flak from the nonathletic crowd.
He enters the classroom and is given unapproving looks by horn rimmed faces of professors; he is given evil looks by the nonautilistic student who lives in envy tinged with anger. He is placed into a segment of the University is terrified by the various legends of his physical and sexual prowess. Thus in general, he is classified as a dumb, irresponsible jock, only serving the University on the days of the exam or meet is convincingly won.
His attitude reflects that of a first class pointender: a being who lives through theory, philosophical ideals and documents on a completely abstract level. Maybe if the rigors and pain of competitive collegiate athletics, he would be less scornful of the "dumb jock."
Steven Lewis blatantly follows this stereotype with unscrupulous remarks such as, "Most of the boys have bought books and some have even been reading them," or, "I've never seen you ever in a life, Jerry." I wonder if they have any pictures in them."
After the average three-hours daily workout, we sincerely doubt if these high and mighty cerebral beings would be able to sit quietly with less sitting down to "crack the books." We, as KU athletes are not asking for any special favors or courtesy. We are only asking for some degree of from the University as a whole.
We, "... those in the arena whose face is covered by dust or smoke," represent the University of Kansas in the way we truly love: competitive athletics. Thus, we are deeply hurt when our team fails.
If the journalist of the school are going to unleash their feelings of bitterness and their unfutiful fantasy upon us, let he read books not upon the fields of literature. William Q. Martin
Mazon, III., sophomore
Michael J. Conley
Michael J. Mass, freshman
Raftert J. Cale
Reisterstown, Md., freshman
Sun cheaper
Farmers aren't the only ones scared of reactors. There are many good reasons why everyone should be concerned with nuclear reactors themselves but also of the type of mentality that is leading America to dependence more frighteningly on their depend-ment on Arab oil.
To the Editor:
Everyone concedes that we have to develop an independent energy source that is reliable. One has only to look at the history of reliability of the relatively simple reactors now
in operation to see a picture of almost criminal unreliability in a large number of cases. Compound that unreliability with the thousand times more complicated breeder reactor workable "independent" workable "independent" energy source. That is frightening, friends—especially if you're hooked on it.
On the other hand, what alternative do we have? In one of its own reports the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) we could get just as much usability we energy as from atomic energy by the year 2000 and with less capital expenditure using proven reliable system. The catch is that we have to change our energy to solar energy and that'difficulty to do when we're righting a self-perpetuating government agency such as the AEC. But we can do it by letting them know where we stand on this important issue. Petitions already gathered
Pettitions already gathered have been influential in changing the minds of a number of congressmen and senators.
Kenneth Sloan
436 California No. 3
Exam bias
the Editor:
This letter is in response to an editorial appearing in the Oct. 23 edition of the Kansan entitled "The Race." This article races." This response is dictated, not by the cogency of the ideas appearing therein, but by the necessity to halt the effects of complete and erroneous thinking.
It is common knowledge among lawyers that a bar exam has nothing to do with the ability to practice law. This statement will shock people and may not persuase, but the next time you see a practicing lawyer, ask him if the bar exam tests any skills necessary to his practice. Much has been written on the utility of bar examinators. The Murphy's suit. Commenting as early as 1939, Dean Green in the Illinois Law Review states:
We haven't at this point, had an opportunity to view the complaint filed by Dwight E. Murphy against the Kansas Supreme Court, requesting, as relief from the alleged abuse of a student, admission to the Kansas Bar. (Have you?) However, it is our experience that complaints filed in most courts, usually contain several counts. There are many arguments that might be offered to attack the ritual of examination, for some more cogent than others. One argument is the cultural differences between the exam makers and the exam takers. However, the primary argument for elimination of bar examinations concerns their use of discriminatory effect they have on minority students.
"I dare suggest that there is not a single similarity between the bar examination process and what a lawyer is called upon to do in his practice, unless he has been trained. Moreover, I have never heard anyone assert that his experience in the bar examination."
process was of any value to him as a lawyer. Thus, it is that bar examinations miss their mark. They are not designed to test the power a student has gained as a law degree, nor the fact that law students are able to pass bar examinations successfully is indicative of their ability to deal with any sort of handicap. But since examinations are not designed to test their training as lawyers, they are haphazard as every examination demonstrates."
The haphaardz丧 referred to by Green plays have vocce with the Kansas Bar Examination, 60 per cent of minority students taking the bar exam fail, as well as 10 per cent of white students.
"Discrimination" and "validation." The section defining discrimination essentially states that the use of any test adversely affecting employment or membership opportunity of classes protected by the act constitutes discrimination. The test has been validated and evidences a high degree of utility. Federal law on this point is similar.
It is our belief that Kansans should take note of their own laws. One such law, seemingly applicable, is the Kansas Act Against Discrimination and the regulations promulgated to promote such regulations define such concepts as "test,"
The bar exam ultimately must be recognized for what it is. It is a screening device, not a tool, but one that people who are incapable of practicing law, but for regulating the number of people authorized to practice law. The law requires that practitioners rather obvious but little discussed notion that the practice of law is competitive as opposed to the legal anomaly is that the test makers grade the potential competition.
A closer look at this situation is called for. Hopefully, Murphy's suit will bring these issues before a public forum where they may be considered seriously.
Myron L. McRoy
Myron L. McRoy
James M. Posey
James M. Posey
Lawrence law student
Malcolm S. Robinson
Robert R. Koehler
Aid selfless
It has become apparent that both the Kansan and the Student Senate have come to the conclusion that no one but students should benefit from student money. You both feel no obligation to do anything for anyone but yourselves. If it turns out that Legal Aid helps a student say, "Too bad, unless lots of 'em happen to be students." But when the tables are turned around a little bit and Legal Aid says because we may not be able to help as many students (don't forget the Senate already decided that Legal Aid didn't help hardly any students anyway), you and the Senate cry blackmail. It's interesting that the Kansan gets involved but how many of us who do not happen to be in the School of Journalism at KU are allowed to have an input into what the paper puts out.
Anyway following your *absurd logic*, why should students who don't pay city taxes be allowed to use any city facilities. In fact why should anyone ever help anyone else, especially you? You become "I for one and one for I." Keep up the good work and you all can grow up to be Richard Nixon.
Randy Gould 608 Kentuckv
An All-American college newspaper
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GAMES
Eric Meyer
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Jefrey Stinson
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